Archive | March, 2015

With the premier of the movie “Killing Jesus” on National Geographic Chanel receiving over 3.7 million viewers, it got me curious about what movies people watch during Holy Week and Easter.

I took a very unofficial poll with friends and family and the results were:

1. The 10 Commandments – I think most of us grew up watching this every Easter. Charlton Heston will forever be Moses in my mind. One response I got from a friend was: “It always seemed to be on TV during Holy Week growing up, but our bed times were so early we never saw them get out of Egypt.” Spoiler alert – They did!

2. The Passion of the Christ – No surprise here. An absolutely great movie and so moving. When my husband and I saw it at the theater we weren’t able to speak for hours. It hits you so deeply. A great choice to prepare you for Good Friday. Not family friendly for little ones though.

3. Jesus of Nazareth – Full disclosure here – this is not a movie but a mini- series so you need to put in the time commitment! Worth the effort though as one friend said, ” The kids always looked forward to the movie time with the whole family and it generated many questions and good spiritual conversations during the three days to Easter.”

4. Jesus Christ Super Star – My personal favorite, but my husband and I really like the new 2012 Live Arena Tour version, but the 1973 version is great too. The singing is amazing!

5. Godspell – A modern-day song-and-dance recreation of the Gospel of St. Matthew. I always thought this was a hippy version of the gospel. Great songs and imagery.

7. The Greatest Story Ever Told – The title says it all – How else do you describe the life of Christ? An epic film but you better settle in as it is 225 minutes long.

Now to some of the more unusual responses.

8. Lilies of the Field – Who can forget Sidney Poitier as a traveling handyman who becomes the answer to the prayers of nuns who wish to build a chapel in the desert. Catch this video of Sidney Poitier singing Amen. I dare you not to smile and sing along!

9. Quo Vadis – The movie or the Mini-series. I have never seen either but the description is: A fierce Roman general becomes infatuated with a beautiful Christian hostage and begins questioning the tyrannical leadership of the despot Emperor Nero.

10. For Greater Glory -A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929); a war by the people of Mexico against the atheistic Mexican government. Not an outright religious movie but a story of bravery and a fight for religious freedom. Given our current events in the news lately, this is something we all need to be thinking and talking about.

11 The Robe – One of my personal favorites. A Roman official who was present at Christ’s crucifixion wins Jesus’ garment. He becomes tormented at the memory of the man and his death on the cross. He eventually goes on a quest to relieve his torment but find he can only find peace in Jesus.

12. Groundhog Day – This was probably the strangest response. It is the story of a weatherman who has to relive the same day over and over again until he changes his ways. My friend commented: “This is thinking a little out of the box, and its not a religious movie, but Groundhog Day has underlying Easter-related themes.” and another said “I guess I generally like any movie that has “moral to the story.” I like to see the guys in the white hats win!” All good reasons to include it in your Easter movie list.

What is your favorite Easter and Holy Week movie? Share it below in the comments.

Addendum – I haven’t seen the “Killing Jesus” movie yet so I can make no recommendation. They do have an awesome website though! Explore it here.

Part of the commitment to going on a hunt is taking concrete steps to prepare. For my 12-year-old daughter Claire, that meant shooting the gun she will hunt with — for the first time.

Pulling out the 20-gauge shotgun on Sunday afternoon and holding it in her hands was a big deal to her. Even more so was putting her finger on the trigger and pulling it.

That’s why I was slow and deliberate about getting her ready for the shot. We talked about recoil, and I explained how to hold the gun to minimize the impact from the shot. She understood, but still was reluctant to ignite the gunpowder with her finger stroke.

The obvious question any child her age would ask is: Is this going to hurt?

Thankfully, the recoil from a 20-gauge is considerably less than a 12, so I was able to tell her truthfully that the recoil is not a big deal.

The good news is, after firing the gun, she agreed with me.

What’s more, she also drilled the turkey target in the head and neck, just like she was supposed to. There’s nothing like success to bring a smile to the face of a youngster. I think I was more pumped about her good shot than she was.

Yet, I fully understand that hitting a target and hitting a live turkey are two very different things. However, confidence plays a huge role in being able to execute a shot at a real bird. Succeeding in practice, especially right away, really helps once they go out into the field.

The truth is, hitting a real turkey can be easy. I say CAN be because it can also be tremendously difficult and nearly impossible at times. I like to say shooting a turkey can be like hitting a knuckleball with a baseball bat. The unpredictable nature of the bird, especially a tom, can really put a lot of stress on a hunter.

But, there is a way to help combat that — use decoys. Another is to hunt from a blind, as turkeys seem oblivious to movement inside a blind.

Finally, the last piece is to hunt unpressured birds. You can do that one of two ways: 1. Hunt property that hasn’t had other hunters on it, or 2. Hunt the very first season, before other hunters can pressure the birds.

I’m opting for No. 2. Fortunately, the DNR has structured the hunt to allow youth hunters to pick any season they wish without having to enter the lottery. Naturally, I chose the first season, which is April 15-19. I got landowner permission for two of my favorite properties, which are near Red Wing. So, we’re good to go.

What I’m hoping for is to draw a bird into the decoys, then have it stick around and display in front of them, as gobblers often will do. Sometimes, they shy away from decoys and don’t come in. But, usually, if they do, they’ll stick around for a while. And, with us being in the blind, Claire will be able to move all she wants inside of it to prepare for the shot. Plus, I’ll be able to whisper to her and help her prepare to shoot.

Once she’s ready, I’ll simply do some excited calls from within the blind, which generally freezes the bird and gets it to lift its head up. Hopefully, she then will do exactly what she did in practice.

One other thing I will do is have her watch some turkey videos on TV and practice aiming the gun at them. Someone suggested this to me years ago. This will give her practice at acquiring the sight picture and picking the right moment to shoot.

This is fun stuff, and I can’t wait to take Claire out. The weather is looking good, and if it stays warm, the birds will break up their winter flocks and spread out more. That is very helpful for hunting. I have hunted early seasons before, and always seem to get more action when it’s a warmer and earlier spring versus a colder and later one.

This one looks a bit warmer and earlier, but probably closer to normal, which we haven’t had in a while. I’m optimistic about the hunt, but hoping we have some nice, warm weather during Claire’s season. If we get that, I think we’re in business.

Hopefully, a turkey like this will come into range when it comes time to hunt this spring.

Later today, I will be heading to the Minneapolis Convention Center for the annual Progressive Northwest Sportshow. It’s on my don’t-miss list, and it runs through Sunday.

For hunting and fishing enthusiasts like me, it has a little bit of everything. I always look for booths and products related to my two greatest outdoor passions — bow hunting and turkey hunting. It’s nice to get a nice “fix” of the outdoors as we make the transition from winter to spring. Today being the first official day of spring, it’s the perfect time to go!

There’s lots to cover, and one nice thing is the exercise I get walking from one end of the exhibition hall to the other. Hopefully, that will help get me in shape for the time when I will chase down gobblers this spring. I am hunting in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, plus I will be taking out three other hunters and trying to help them get birds.

One of them is my daughter Claire. We are going to shoot the 20-gauge shotgun she will be using Sunday afternoon, and I am going to buy sights to put on it before we go. She is worried about the recoil, but I hope she won’t be too bothered by it. I’ll be sure to bring some padding for her shoulder. I have taken her three older brothers turkey hunting, and I’m thrilled her time has come. This should be a fun weekend!

Podlasek’s was where as just a boy I first was accused of being brainwashed into being a Cubs fan.

On the way home from, well, just about anywhere, dad would stop in at the neighborhood tavern at 47th and Kedvale on Chicago’s southwest side — White Sox territory. Since I was invariably wearing my Cubs cap, I was invariably verbally harrassed and ridiculed by the suds-sipping gentlemen on the bar stools.

I call the teasers gentlemen because they’d regularly buy dad a Pilsner and a root beer “for Eddie’s kid.”

When my father was in his formative years in the 1930s the Cubs had winning teams, which is why he was a Cubs fans.

Thanks to dad, if graditude is in fact appropriate, I’ve been a fan of the Chicago National Leauge Baseball Club literally since birth, a lifer as my Cubs fan brother-in-law Mike says, his words leaning toward meaning fated to a life sentence.

Naturally then I loved George Will’s “A Nice Little Place on the North Side,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist’s history of Wrigley Field and my Cubs, published last year upon the 100th anniversary of the ballpark at Clark and Addison. Any fan of the national pastime — not just Cubs fans — will be be entertained by all the baseball lore Will has dug up.

The 194 pages are actually a history of the nation, the world and life itself captured anecdotal style, because Will works into his book connections that Ernie Banks’ “friendly confines” have had with war, politics, organized crime, racism, love, McDonald’s, beer, and of course, chewing gum.

The famous, oft-told baseball stories are all there and superbly rendered in detail: Babe Ruth’s alleged “called shot” home run in the 1932 World Series; Gabby Hartnett’s “homer in the gloamin’ ” in 1938; the disastrous Lou Brock-for-Ernie Broglio trade; the Bartman foul ball episode in the 2003 playoffs; and the full, expletives-adjusted text of manager Lee Elia’s tirade against booing fans.

The obvious characters are all there, too: owner William Wrigley, his reluctant successor son P.K., Hack Wilson, Leo Durocher, Banks (of beloved memory!), Harry Caray and the infamous “College of Coaches,” plus personalities readers may not have known have a Wrigley Field connection, including Al Capone, Jack Ruby, Ray Kroc and Jim Thorpe.

The stories Will shares and enhances so well with his own research and that of previous Cubs historians understandably couldn’t possibly include everything in Wrigley’s hundred-year history, yet a few classics seemed to be missing, including:

• Walt “Moose” Moryn’s catch of a sinking line drive to end the game and save Don Cardwell’s no-hitter in 1960.

• The tragic off-season plane-crash death in 1964 of Kenny Hubbs, the Cubs’ errorless game record-setting, Gold Glove-winning, rookie of the year second baseman.

• Carl Sandburg making the book but not Ryne Sandberg, who in 1984 hit a game-tying home run off legendary closer Bruce Sutter in the ninth inning, then a game-winning two-run homer off Sutter in the 10th, on the nationally televised “Game of the Week.”

Props, however, go to Will for giving the appropriate credit to each and every one of the sources of the tales he shares. And for writing a truly satisfying book that even has a few religious notes.

New Yorker essayist William Zinsser is quoted comparing baseball fans to “parishioners,” who every half-inning pause “to meditate on what they have just seen,” and the author himself finds that fans cheering “a kind of prayer in a secular setting that somehow helps their teams’ successes.”

It would have been easy for Will to take the “lovable losers” theme too far, but “A Nice Little Place on the North Side” avoids what could easily have turned cloying.

Instead Will puts a professorial spin on being a Cubs fan, terming it “a lifelong tutorial on delayed gratification” and Wrigley Field “the most pleasant of purgatories.”

There’s baseball trivia on these pages enough for a game-full of between-innings challenges, and any fan who picks up the book now can consider it their own spring training.

In his homily at Mass during the 2015 Archdiocesan Men’s Conference, Father William Baer made one thing clear: Local news can be monotonous and dull. Covering the mundane events of ordinary life can be a drag. But the mission of The Catholic Spirit is, and always has been, to spread the good news, not the bad. Sometimes the good news is boring.

While preaching to a crowd of more than 1,300 men gathered at the University of St. Thomas, Father Baer said, “Now there’s probably a journalist here from The Catholic Spirit, and he’s going to take a few photos and write a nice story. But at the end he’s going to say, ‘And they all went home.’ You can be sure, if he uses this phrase he’s just filling up space because he has nothing else to say.”

There are two points Father Baer is making here, ad hominems aside. First, when it comes to events like the men’s conference, The Catholic Spirit has, admittedly, published a similar story with a similar photo and a similar ending.

Second, the conclusion to St. John’s account of the division in the crowd is wildly misunderstood, especially by knuckle-headed journalist folk like myself. The point of the phrase, “then each went to his own house” (John 7:53), is not to say that after an hour of bickering the Pharisees made up and returned home peacefully. Rather, each went his separate way. Division conquered. It was an appropriate point to be made given the theme of the conference: conquering sin. Men, and the Church, are divided by sin. This is the point of John’s phrase, “then each went to his own house.”

But now to the first point. The Catholic Spirit often covers annual stories. We sometimes don’t have anything else to say because we aren’t given new stories to talk about. It is difficult for a journalist to write a new story when he is given the same material every year. We can’t expect different stories if we’re not having different events. The story on the men’s conference will always be the story on the men’s conference. Should we cover it, or let it go unnoticed?

Writing a new story on an old event requires taking a different angle. I think Father Baer gave me that angle: We are divided by sin. He was expecting me to write something nice and warm-hearted. Maybe I could have said something about the toasted breakfast burritos, the warm coffee and the jolly company. Maybe I could have made an observation on the fathers and sons in attendance.

Maybe I could have commented on Jeff Cavins’ energy and charisma. Maybe I could have talked about Archbishop John Nienstedt’s words of encouragement. But all of this would just be the same story we read last year.

This year, I saw something different; I have something else to say.

I saw an archbishop worn out by scandal. I saw the gloom in the faces of men addicted to porn. I saw fathers stuff their faces with burritos while their sons slept at home. I saw a crowd of seminarians worried about the future of their archdiocese. I saw young men sleep through Father Simon’s hopeful preaching. I saw men more interested in free Butterfingers than any material the booth fair had to offer. I saw men walk out while their bishop spoke.

I heard men talk about troubles at home. I heard men worried about their alcoholism.

I heard a man tell a friend he no longer loves his wife.

And some did not go home, at least not right away. They went to the bars and drank to their hearts’ content.

The whole Church is divided by sin. But in this darkness and suffering, there is hope. We can conquer sin.

Father Richard Simon, a priest from Illinois and host of radio show “Father Simon Says,” spoke at the conference. The topic was conquering sin. In his talk, he reminded the men of this archdiocese of the purpose of life.

“We don’t exist to be happy,” he said. “We exist to love.”

Happiness is fleeting. Sin and suffering seem to control our lives. But we have to remember that we can’t fully understand this suffering from our perspective. Father Simon put it nicely: “We look at a mother holding a sick child in her arms and we see suffering. God sees love. When we finally see as God sees, we shall see that the suffering was not suffering. It was love. We will know that no tear went unnoticed and no prayer went unanswered.”

This message is particularly important for our archdiocese. The wounds of scandal have opened us up to a world of love. Wounded, we will never stop loving. As Father Simon said, “You’re doing fine if you get up again. Now go to confession!”

Sometimes, to return to Father Baer’s comment, when a journalist says something else, people get upset. But I have always thought that the job of a Catholic journalist is to be honest. And an honest approach to sin is never a pretty story. This is why we write good news. This is why some of our stories look the same, because goodness does not change.

One word…
“Shush”
One word was all it took to bring me a smile.
I have been on a semi-silent retreat at my sister’s cabin. I say semi-silent because being silent is not something I am good at. I have my phone with me and have made regular calls to my husband, son and daughter. But the purpose, or my hope, in this little excursion was to hear God’s voice. So far all I can hear is my own.
On Sunday I snuck away to a cafe with internet to catch up on some of my social media vices. I hopped on my facebook and messaged a few people. Most of my correspondence was rambling and chatty since I have been out of contact for a while. I messaged a priest friend of mine whom I have known for years and rambled on about my silent retreat and the church up north that I went to Mass at and the retreat center that is up here but I am not staying at and how it would be a great place for a retreat and… Well, you get the picture. You can almost imagine that my fingers were out of breath.

Being a Sunday morning I was surprised that my priest friend replied.
It is sort of their buisiest day!

He replied with one word.
“Shush”
Not hush like a mother would say, but shush like a Father reminding his children and redirecting their attention.
The shush brought me a smile. For one, it was a reminder to redirect my thoughts to God but later that day I reflected on how it made me feel.

The shush brought me a smile because this priest knows me well and knew that I needed that gentle reminder to quiet myself considering my extrovert personality. It also brought my heart a moment of joy to think that this busy priest held me in his thoughts for a moment on a busy Sunday morning. I get these same moments of joy when my husband sends me a text telling me he is thinking of me or a friend remembers a special day.

So if this brought me a moment of joy, why am I having so much trouble feeling the joy of knowing that God holds me in his thoughts always? God knows me and my heart better than anyone.
What was keeping me from hearing God’s voice? Feeling God’s love?

“Shush”

Am I not praying well enough? Is their something I am missing? Has God forgotten me?

“Shush!”

and listen…

Lent is a time for Shush… As we head into this last week before Easter, prepare your hearts and quiet your soul and “Shush” to hear God’s voice.
All we need to do is listen…

Something happens when the thermometer rises into the 50s in March. My entire outlook seems to improve. In short, it puts a smile on my face.

And, a few ideas in my head. I acted on one of them last week. For several years, I have been wanting to do some deer scouting and stand placement in the spring. I have read about it, thought about it, dreamed about it. Finally, this year, I did something about it.

I went to the property I bow hunt in Wisconsin and set up two ladder stands, one on either side of a major trail that goes along a ridge and through some thick cover. It is the narrowest funnel on the property, and there is only one trail going through it. So, putting a stand on either side means I can hunt it in any wind. In bow hunting, that’s huge. I did some trimming of shooting lanes, too. I am not quite finished, but will go back in the next few weeks to complete the job. Then, I will be ready to bow hunt this fall.

I have more work to do, and hope to get out again this week. The job was made more difficult by the fact that I lost permission to hunt on a great metro property after two guys with a lot of money leased it for the year. I may get back on again someday, but for now, I am required to go out and remove my three stands. I did that, and put two of those stands up in Wisconsin.

I also have been thinking and planning for turkey hunting this spring. I will be taking my daughter Claire during the first season, and I am very excited about that. It will be her very first hunt. She told me a few weeks ago she wants to go, but still isn’t sure she will be able to pull the trigger on a bird. That’s fine with me. I just look forward to the opportunity to take her out into the woods.

I will hunt Season E in Minnesota (May 5-9), then the D Season in Wisconsin, which begins May 6. That has been a great time period to hunt, and I hope it will be again this year.

Sure would be nice to do some fishing, too. I met someone who lives on Big Stone Lake, which lies on the border of Minnesota and South Dakota. That lake is open year round, so I could go out there any time after the ice melts. I may get in touch with him to see if that will work. I also know that the Bishop’s Charity Fishing Tournament for the Diocese of Sioux Falls will be in June, so I could go out there for that event. I’m sure I could both fish the tournament and cover it. That would be fun, plus I could take home some walleyes for a fish fry.

The biggest challenge, as always, is time. Life gets very busy in May, so it could get tough to squeeze in some outdoor outings. But, June is looking pretty good right now. I would like to get out on the water at some point. Big Stone is about a 3-hour drive, which isn’t too bad. If there is a boat waiting for me there to go out in, it will be hard to pass up.

For now, I’ll work on the deer stands and start looking for strutting toms as I drive around. The mild winter should mean plenty of birds this spring. Even after our harsh winter last year, I still saw quite a few, and was able to harvest three mature gobblers. I plan to have three tags again this year, maybe four. Plus, I may try to get a bird with my bow this year. I’m going back and forth on that one. I will do some more checking into that. Sure would be fun to take a tom with my bow.

People constantly mispronounce the name of Annie Reddy’s 4-year-old daughter. Yes, it’s an uncommon name outside of France, but, after all the anticipated press, it’s likely to climb the Nameberry charts this year.

It’s Zelie – and it doesn’t rhyme with “jelly.”

It’s pronounced ZAY-lee, and it’s the nickname of Thérèse of Lisieux’s mother, who is slated for canonization in October with her husband and Thérèse’s father, Louis.

The Martins, Blessed Azélie-Marie (1831-1877) and Louis (1823-1894), married in 1858 and reportedly will be the first couple to be canonized together.

Zélie was a lace-maker, and Louis made watches. Both of them had aspired to the religious life – Zélie to the convent, and Louis to a monastery. Both were rejected, Zélie for poor health, and Louis because of his lack of Latin. The couple had nine children – seven daughters and two sons – but only five daughters would survive infancy. All five became religious sisters; four of them, including Therese (the youngest) became Carmelites at Lisieux.

Known as “The Little Flower” and popular for her autobiography where she described her “little way” to Jesus, St. Therese was canonized in 1925 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1997, one of only four women doctors.

Light in the darkness

St. Therese has always been one of Annie’s patrons; her middle name is Therese. She was the saint Annie turned to during what she called “a pretty dark time” in her life.

Five years ago, Annie discovered she was pregnant. She wasn’t married, had never intended to be, and hadn’t imagined herself as a mother. She vacillated between adoption and raising her daughter, finally deciding on the latter.

“She was going to be my adventure in life,” said Annie, now 29 and a parishioner of St. Paul in Ham Lake. “I thought forever it was going to be just me and this baby girl.”

As part of that bond, Annie named her daughter Zelie Luella for Zélie and Louis Martin, names familiar to her from reading St. Therese’s writings.

“St. Therese kind of walked me throughout life, including that dark time,” Annie said. “I wanted her (Zelie) to have a name that was part of me.”

At the time, Annie didn’t realize the Martins were on their own path to sainthood. Pope John Paul II declared them venerable in 1994, and they were beatified in 2008. On Feb. 27, the prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes announced the couple would be canonized together in October, during the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family. Both miracles attributed to the couple involved the healing of children.

Annie believes the saints’ prayers helped her parents guide her during her pregnancy and early motherhood. “They never judged me,” she said. “I think somehow Zelie Martin was interceding for me and my parents, and for this little girl to be in our lives.”

Vocation to marriage

Those prayers may also have had a role in her falling in love with her now husband, Ryan. The two had known each other since eighth grade, but Annie admits that before Zelie, she wasn’t the kind of woman Ryan would have wanted to marry.

“It’s one of those things were God breaks down your walls with children,” she said.

“She prepared me for intimacy with another human being. She taught me to be selfless and break down those dark areas in my life. Ryan wouldn’t have married me if it wasn’t for Zelie … . I just didn’t have it in my character to be married at that time, and Zelie really pulled that out of me.”

Annie had tried to name her daughter in a meaningful way, but hadn’t realized at the time how significant her name would truly be, she said. “I think that’s the work of Zelie Martin in bringing me to the vocation of marriage and family life,” she said.

The Reddys’ family has grown since their 2013 wedding; a year later, they had a son, Ezekiel.

Annie was thrilled when she heard the news of the Martins’ upcoming canonization, and she would love to witness the event in person, with her daughter. “Nobody really understands the name, so we try to tell her about it,” Annie said. “We would love for her to see that production (the canonization) go down.”

A few days before Annie heard the news about the Martins’ canonization, Zelie asked her mother if she could be St. Zelie. Annie thinks the idea came from The Way of the Shepherd Catholic Montessori in Blaine, where Zelie goes to school, but it was music to her ears. She’s convinced her daughter has transformed her life. “Now I’m working on sainthood,” she said.